The telecommunications group raised almost $98bn for its Vision Fund and dominated the tech VC space in 2017.
It’s hard to remember any single investor casting such a shadow over the venture capital space, but SoftBank Vision Fund was a behemoth in 2017, and at one stage seemed to be almost ever-present at the top of the headlines investing big money.
News of SoftBank Vision Fund first broke in October 2016 when telecoms and internet group SoftBank, already one of the preeminent names in corporate venturing, announced plans for a $100bn fund that would be equipped with $25bn of its own capital as well as $45bn from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The fund reached its first close in May, having accumulated $93bn from LPs that also included a reported $15bn from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company and $1bn each from electronics producers Apple and Sharp, chipmaker Qualcomm and contract manufacturer Foxconn.
By that point SoftBank had already made some big moves, participating in a $500m round for…
